Guns fall silent on LoC

After over three weeks of virtually non-stop exchanges of fire and mortar shelling between Indian and Pakistani troops, guns fell silent in the past 48 hours along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesperson said.

‘There was no ceasefire violation by Pakistan in the past 48 hours, particularly on Thursday.

‘Guns fell silent from across (the border) after our befitting reply to Pakistani firing in August,’ Defence spokesperson, Col RK Palta, said here on Thursday.

‘The last ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops took place on 27 August when they fired at Indian forward posts along LoC in the Bhimber Gali sub-sector of Poonch district’, he said.

‘(That attack) started at around 3 pm and continued for 15 minutes,’ he said, adding that Indian troops, who had retaliated strongly to the firing, sustained no injuries or loss of life in the incident.

Pakistani troops resorted to automatic and small-arms fire, besides using RPGs, rockets and mortars, to attack Indian forward positions in the Swajian, Garhi, Poonch, Nangi Tikri, Krishna Ghati, Mendhar, Mankote, Hamirpur, Bhimber Gali, Balakote and Tarkundi sub-sectors which lie along the 220-km long LoC in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.

The outposts there have been manned by the Rajouri-based 25 Infantry Division since 6 August when a Pakistani Border Action Team attacked an Indian patrol and killed five jawans and injured another at Sarla in Poonch.

Another jawan, who was injured in a separate incident of ceasefire violation, succumbed at AIIMS in Delhi where he was airlifted for treatment.

There have been more than 30 ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops in August this year with the total number of such incidents since Jan. 1 now touching 80, a nearly 90 per cent rise over the corresponding period last year.